The top-selling back-toschool item at Big W is a UHU Value Glue Stic 40g val­ued at $1.20, which is matched by Of­fice­works for the same price, but can be found on­line at Wool­worths for $2.95 and at Spot­light for $2.99.

While 81 per cent of par­ents said they had started shop­ping, 46 per cent of par­ents ad­mit­ted to do­ing it last-minute.

A fur­ther 78 per cent of par­ents over­all pre­fer to shop in-store than on­line for backto-school items, with South Aus­tralians lead­ing the way with 95 per cent of them phys­i­cally shop­ping in-store.

Of the items that need re­plac­ing dur­ing the year, 88 per cent said school shoes needed to be bought again, fol­lowed by wa­ter bot­tles (78 per cent), pen­cil cases/sta­tionery (65 per cent), lunch boxes (62 per cent), uni­forms (63 per cent), hats (58 per cent) and school bags (44 per cent).

“It’s a great time to teach your kids about bud­get­ing and the price pre­mi­ums brands charge for sim­i­lar prod­ucts,” he said. “Why not show your kids how to bank a sav­ing by avoid­ing colour­ful big name brands and opt­ing for a lit­tle DIY cre­ativ­ity on ba­sic books, bags and note­books.

“Get­ting your kids to cus­tomise their prod­ucts will not only save you money, it’s fun.”

With big ticket items like shoes, he said par­ents should shop around.

“It al­ways pays to check prices on­line,” he said.

“And re­mem­ber, with kids grow­ing so fast, splash­ing out on a pricey pair might not end up be­ing the best value for money.”

Mr God­frey also sug­gested par­ents should open a sav­ings ac­count and put a lit­tle money aside each pay­day.

“If you can make last year’s uni­form work un­til term starts, the sec­ond-hand uni­form shop can be your ticket to se­ri­ous sav­ings,” he said.

PHOTO: CON­TRIB­UTED

SCHOOL’S BACK: Re­turn­ing to school can be costly for par­ents, but you can save money.